


The Webs Fate Weaves

by Winteress_Soldier



Series: We All Start Somewhere (To Be Better) [1]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ultimate Spider-Man (Cartoon 2012)
Genre: BAMF Peter Parker, Fem Peter Parker - Freeform, Homeless Peter Parker, Multi, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Peter Parker Needs a Hug, Peter Parker Whump, Spideynova - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-09
Updated: 2020-06-09
Packaged: 2021-03-01 21:20:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23553712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winteress_Soldier/pseuds/Winteress_Soldier
Summary: Peyton Parker has been at this superhero thing for over 2 years now and she likes to think she has a pretty good grasp on it by this point, turns out she still has a long way to go. Peyton has to learn how to work with a team and how to let people in, even if it's not always that easy. Maybe, maybe a certain buckethead will show her she doesn't have to settle for second best.
Relationships: Johnny Storm & Peter Parker, Matt Murdock & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Danny Rand, Sam Alexander/Peter Parker
Series: We All Start Somewhere (To Be Better) [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1746457
Comments: 17
Kudos: 63





	1. Chapter 1 - Trying My Best

**Third Person POV**

She swings through the city as the sun starts to peak over the horizon. Landing on a jumbo tron she listens a Jameson rants about her latest fights as Spider-girl. “Spider-Girl is a menace that needs to be locked away” Jameson’s growls as Spider-Girl watches shaking her head “Can’t a spider get some love around here?” she question’s theoretically before swinging away from the now broken jumbo-tron. Spider-girl’s head shoots up as her Spidey-sense thumps against the base of her skull. Rushing round the corner she shoots a web that stops a runaway police car from crashing into a cake shop, the officer climbs out the window and smiles at the spider “I’m starting to think Jameson’s wrong about you” he admits and Spidey waves “Spread the word Chief” she salutes before webbing away. Spider-Girl’s been swinging round the streets of New York for over 2 years now though her identity remains a mystery. She sighs reading over a sticky note she placed in her bag so she’d remember _1\. Get cake for uncle Ben 2. Visit cemetery after school._ Some things never get easier, especially when all you get is criticized for doing the right thing.

Her attention is ripped away from the note as screams pierce the air, she swings onto the street met with glue splattered all over the place. The Trapster gravelly voice carries out onto the desolate street “I knew that would catch your attention bug brain” he snarls shooting his canon of super-strength glue at her. Spider-Girl easily Back-flips out of the way shoot web after web at the big brute. Trapster breaks the webbing and she get’s thrown into a building a large gash in her side. Shaking it off she fires a web into the canon which explodes and traps the Trapster.  
Spider-Girl turns around as the Helicarrier approaches, Fury the director of S.H.I.E.L.D has been following her since she started to make her way up in terms of being noticed. “Yes, Fury I already know Cap could’ve done this is a minute” Fury just stares stoic as ever “No, he only would’ve need 10 seconds. Kid look around, you’re not as bad as you were but still too much collateral damage”.

Spidey looks down, it’s bad enough being criticized everyday but by someone as high up as the S.H.I.E.L.D director, ouch. He sighs placing a hand on her shoulder “Everybody starts somewhere kid, even the heroes you look up to now, it doesn’t happen overnight. What would you say to a bit of a push in the right direction, S.H.I.E.L.D could use someone like you” Spider-Girl backs up shaking her head “While that sounds a great and all i’m not interest on whatever self-help book your trying to offer and I’m all out till pay day so..” Spider-Girl turns and starts to walk away. “I’m serious……Peyton Parker” She freeze’s _‘Eyepatch say what now?’_ “You know?” he just chuckles “Super Spy remember?” Everything changed after the awful Oscorp trip, one radioactive spider bite later and she finds herself making a promise to her uncle as he fades away in her arm, the familiar sting of tears burn her eyes. “With great power comes great responsibility” It’s weird hearing Fury say her life’s motto, the only thing that makes her think that this is worth it. “Great words from a great man” Peyton turns away “Uncle Ben was the best”

“It’s been what, 2 years now?” all the memories of playing with science kits, sneaking ice-creams before dinner so Aunt May didn’t see them. The night of the argument, she stormed off like an immature little kid, the echo of the shot rings through the air. Uncle Ben laying on the cold ground the rain washing away the blood as more pours out, her pleas for him to hold on falling on deaf ears. Peyton snaps back into the present as Fury lays a hand on her shoulder “Today would’ve been his birthday” she mutter quietly, “You’ve honored his memory doing what you do but I’m offering you the chance to do more” Fury explains

“To be as good as Cap or Iron-man” she scoffs to herself quietly _‘yeah that’ll be the day, maybe people will finally embrace the spider brand.’_ “If you change your mind you know where the Helicarrier is” Peyton nods before swinging towards school her phone vibrating against her side no doubt MJ wondering where she is. Peyton’s known MJ for as long as she can remember they were always close even as they grew older and she became the more favored of the two.

After changing into normal clothes Peyton races into school panting slightly as she reaches her locker with an unimpressed MJ standing next to it. “I’m starting to think you don’t even try to be on time” Peyton shrugs sheepishly smiling guiltily at her oldest friend before spotting her only other friend, Harry Osborn. Though he’s been slowly distancing himself from her recently, reveling in all the attention he gets from the girls at school oblivious to how many beatings Peyton’s taken for purely being his friend.

Time management was a skill Peyton couldn’t afford to ignore picked it up quickly, what with being Spider-Girl she had to make sure she had time for her friends, and she did. The only time she ever cancelled was when it was impossible to not, which only happen rarely. So what if she never make it anywhere on time, a girl can only manage so much on a few hours of sleep a night. **_BRRRRIIIIIIINNNNNNNGGGGGG!!!_**. Peyton barely conceals a flinch at the harshness of the sound due to her sensitive hearing. Classes drag on through the day Fury offer playing on her mind on repeat, but she tries to focus on making it through the day. Flash sends her sad smile when he sees her, his life at home isn’t the best and while he may not have always been the best person, she could never hold it against him, she’s not like that.

Picking up her tray of disgusting slop the school calls food and sits next to MJ, picking the small edible bit’s off it. Harry sit’s across from them an easy going smile on his face but doesn’t acknowledge Peyton. She sighs staring down at her plate as the wall to the cafeteria is destroy and the Frightful four burst in, great.

“We heard that a certain spider attends school here, come out little spider, if you don’t want these innocent kids to get hurt” Kids rush towards the exit but Peyton hangs back trying to find a way for her to change into her suit “Hey ugly, why don’t you leave them alone” they scoff at her laughing to themselves “No way this one is Spider-Girl, too wimpy” the Wizard laughs before Thundra steps forward “I’ll kill the runt” Wizard holds her back “Don’t kill make an example of her, Claw” Claw shoots a painful sonic blast at her making her scream.

Harry and MJ watch on in horror as Peyton writhes in pain on the floor as Claw continues to torture her. “Okay, okay I’ll talk” Peyton pulls herself up using a table her eyes landing on the gross plate of food “Well, we’re waiting” Peyton looks over her shoulder grabbing the tray in one hand “Hey everyone, food fight” she launches the tray at the Wizard and it knocks him down and everyone joins in. Perfect distraction.

Peyton climbs up the scaffolding she tears her shirt off revealing the suit, sliding the mask on she webs Claws weapon towards himself and he knocks himself out so webs him to the floor. Peyton takes down the other two quickly with no shortage of sarcastic quips.

Peyton turns around to here MJ’s scream and watches Harry get blasted by Claw, anger courses through her veins and she lands a strong kick to his jaw and he collapses to the floor. Peyton’s head snap to the side as Thundra lands a mean left hook, she spins round with her punch that disorientates Thundra before turning her into a web mummy.

Screams echo through the room as The Wizard uses his technology suspended a group of kids in the air and in-front of him “Spidey won’t dare risk attacking now”. Peyton picks up Thundra as if she going to throw making Wizard drag the kids even more in-front of him but instead she throws Thundra behind her sliding under Wizard and webbing his back. Before he can even realize, she slams him into the wall. Sirens echo in the distance and the 3 villains make a run for it muttering about not being payed to deal with cops. Peyton changes back into her normal clothes and races into the cafeteria where MJ sits on the floor holding Harry’s head on her lap. She skids to the floor on the opposite side to MJ shaking him gently “Come on Harry, please be okay” she mutters holding his hand in her own.

Norman Osborn comes racing inside, Harry’s dad. He picks Harry up and gives the two girls a sad smile “I’m sorry Mr. Osborn, it’s my fault” Norman places a hand on her shoulder as a comforting gesture “Don’t be silly Peyton, there’s nothing you could’ve done” she just nods non committal way _‘Fury was right, I still have a long way to go'._  
The school is let out early due to the events that took place which gives Peyton more time to patrol. The glow of the setting sun is cast over the city, spotting the Helicarrier in the distance Peyton webs her way up landing on the roof. Once she goes through the security scan to find Fury waiting for her a knowing smile on his face “Spider-Girl, I’m guessing you’ve reconsidered my offer” Peyton nods “I want to honor Ben, and if I have the chance to do more why shouldn’t I” Fury nods and start walking “Well said, I’m hoping to get your opinion on something” Peyton follows him into what looks to be a spectator room.

“Coulson” Peyton nods to the Agent who nods back before turning to Fury “She gonna look over the team?” Fury nods “Yes, and hopeful have some good input too” Peyton walks up to the glass spotting 4 kids in what looks to be superhero get up fighting her own design L.M.D’s.

“Okay, who are these guys” Fury stands next to her watching his team train “They are hopefully the next group of greats.” Peyton nods watching their fighting skills “The one with the glowing fist is Iron Fist” she watches him take down several bots but get crashed into by a girl in a tiger suit _'Amazing skill, too focused on waiting for the perfect hit'_ “Tiger suit is White Tiger her powers come from the amulet that hangs on her belt” Peyton nods while watching the other girl fight _‘Good technique, overly focused on doing cool flips and following written plans’._

White Tiger nearly gets hit by an energy blasted from another figure flying around “The kid that’s flying is Nova, used to work with the guardians but never did any real mission only training” _'Overestimating his own ability, overconfident, could be dangerous'_ , Another guy launches himself in the air and throws the bots away with impressive strength _'Relying solely on his strength'_ “Powerman, he got a bit off a replica super soldier serum which gave him strength to rival Cap himself” Peyton assess each of their fighting technique’s _‘They’re all fighting alone and neglecting to use each other’s strengths’_ she turn’s to Fury with a raised eyebrow “They’re fighting as superheroes who all happen to be fighting the same threat not as a team, if they worked together instead of rivaling each other they would’ve finished this ages ago” Fury nods as though he suspected as much “Now what is it you want Fury because I know you didn’t need me to tell you that because you could make that assessment fine by yourself” Fury nods “I didn’t bring you here to tell me what I already know, I want you to teach these newbies how to fight as a team. I want you to join this team as their leader” Peyton immediately backs up shaking her head a scowl taking over her features “I’m leading a group of wannabes to their death, I can’t be responsible for any more death. You know what happened last time”

Fury sighs “You can’t blame yourself for the past, these kids won’t last a day out in the field by themselves. All I’m asking is that you give them a chance, like he did for you” she turns away trying to ignore the stinging in her eyes at the thought of her long-gone friend. “Fine, I’ll give them a chance to prove they can handle this type of thing but I still get to do my own Spidering solo” she agrees somewhat begrudgingly, being responsible for 4 other people doesn’t sit well with her conscience. Nodding to the two agents she slips silently out of the Helicarrier swing to her small, beat up apartment. Changing out of the suit she grabs her cake from the shop, the owner giving her a sad smile.

Peyton makes it to the cemetery, a lone tear rolling down her face as she sits in front of two grave one much newer than the other. Peyton places the cake delicately in front of the two headstones, she places a kiss on top of both as the tears stream down faster. “H-H-Happy birthday Uncle Ben, I miss you” she sobs hugging her arms around herself “I miss you too Aunt May, I’m sorry I wasn’t fast enough” she wipes her tears away starring at her Uncle headstone “I’m trying my best Uncle Ben, I hope your proud, I wish you were here” she sits there till the sun is long gone past the horizon before picking the cake up and walking home to her cold, empty apartment.

_‘I’m just trying my best’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! I’ve never written on archive before so this is new to me so forgive me if anything is a little weird, I’ll try my best to make this as enjoyable and easy to read as possible. I decided to write this as I feel spideynova and USM deserve more fanfics and thought it was worth a shot. I’ll try and update as frequently as possible but I’m known for not being that reliable with that sort of thing (whoops). This will definitely be different and more mature than the show was and will deal with things that most likely would have happened had the show been more realistic (not that the show isn’t amazing because I absolutely love it but they definitely omitted certain things because of it being a kids show)
> 
> I’ll try not to have too many super long notes because I know how annoying that can be but I feel like it’s a little justified with this being the first chapter. I’m open to ideas and any request you have (nothing graphic) for this version or the MCU version of Spider-Man. Any spideynova prompts you have. I really want to start posting frequently on here so any ideas would be much appreciated.
> 
> At this point I have a few plans in terms of where I’m wanting this story to go but it’s still got a long way to go. I’ve got no idea how many chapters there’ll be but I do know the basis of what I want to cover in this story all I can hope is that you all like it. 
> 
> Sorry for rambling for so long but I’m glad I’ve got that all out of the way for now, after this notes will probably just consist of when updates will be made or if there’s anything I feel you readers need to know. Hope you enjoy reading and that I put a smile on your face! Also just thought i'd add something here saying i'm interested in having beta readers to look over my chapters before i update & also for ideas and any grammar issues i miss before i post.
> 
> See ya next update!


	2. Chapter 2 - A Rough Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peyton meets the team officially and the start is a bit rough but it all has to start somewhere. Not all of the team are happy to welcome her in with open arms and decide to be difficult about it. Her first order of business is to drill civilian safety into their heads, they're all competent fighters but have no sense of whats going on around them. Will this all crash and burn before the week is over or will they accept the fact that they've got a lot to learn and Spider-Girl is the only one willing to do that.

Peyton stirs, tears running down her face as the fateful night runs on repeat on, she thrashes against her old, stained mattress that lays on the cold concrete. ‘She stares frozen as the bang echoes through the air, her uncle drops. She races forward skidding on her knees to grasp his hand as the tears rush down her face. The rain drenches her as she sobs next to her uncle “Peyton, I’m alright kid. It’s alright, you’ll be alright. Ugh, just-just r-r-remember, with great p-power com-comes w-with great r-re-re-responsibility” she listens as his heart slows down, watches as his chest falls still sobs tearing at her chest as she desperately wishes their places had been switched’

She lurches forward gasp as she grasps the small, thin sheet she had acting as a blanket. The nightmares never get better even as they become a normality. Using the phone Harry gifted her because ‘It’s socially unacceptable for a teenager to not have internet access’ to check the time which proudly flashes 4:00am. _‘No point in trying to go back to sleep now’._

Pulling a few books from her ratty, half ripped bag she’s been carting around since the 6th grade. Peyton speeds through the homework she neglected to do Yesterday till 5:30 when she opts to head out on early morning patrol. She often finds herself briefly contemplating what people would think if they knew who it was behind the mask. Not that there’s many who’s opinion she values at this point  
The morning definitely didn’t go as badly as it could’ve though that doesn’t mean that she didn’t walk away with a few extra bruises. Peyton decided that they day could not possibly get worse, but with a little thing called Parker luck it was a naive thought. She’s swapping her books while half listening to MJ’s ramblings about journalism when her spidey-sense hums to life.

Drawing attention could up the severity of the situation by tenfold. Turning slightly she makes it look like she’s engaging in a conversation with MJ (which she feels slightly guilty about) taking the chance to scan the hallway as inconspicuously as possible. It doesn’t take long for her to stop four unfamiliar faces and it’s painfully obvious they are new. It takes half a second for her to scan their four statures and she immediately connects the dots but waits a few seconds longer to single in on their heartbeats which match the ones in the training room the day before.

_‘Fuck you Fury, dump the obviously unprepared trainees on me who don’t the first thing about not acting suspicious. Fury can go die in the painful pits of hell for all she cares because this, this is what you call a dick move’_

Peyton, deciding she values her privacy more than anything subtly (which they have no concept of, except maybe the monk) watches as they flounder. They obviously expected her to do something to draw attention to herself since Fury apparently isn’t that much of prick that he can’t respect the secret ID (but he’s still gonna hear a whole lot of bitching about this). It’s not hard to see they have no idea who they are looking for and she’s not sure if she should be offend that they expected it to be that easy.

_‘Fury knew I wouldn’t reveal myself to them, took him over two years to find out himself and that was with a whole fucking lot of privacy invasion.’_

_‘This is a test. Not on me, them.’_ She can’t help the smile that itches to appear because Fury did the exact same shit to her and she can’t say she’s worse off for it. Peyton tries not to judge them to harshly because she can remember all to well when she was the same.

Life doesn’t play fair. Peyton’s biggest problem with some of the newbies that are surfacing is that they don’t understand how dangerous it is to have your identity compromised. They are reckless with the stupid idea that’s been cemented in all their heads that they’ll be able to live like Tony Stark. Vigilante’s don’t fall in the hero category despite how unfair and they don’t have Stark’s immunity, one slip up and they’ll be lookin’ at the inside of a prison cell for the rest of their days.  
Peyton knows this because she’s still avoiding getting a bullet to the head on the daily because even though she building up a following in the hero world she’s still deemed a threat. Enough of a threat that the NYPD still have orders to bring her in if they get even the slightest of chances.

Peyton’s ridiculed on the daily by a large media influencer asshole that ever since her presence started to drift more and more into the light seemed to want her head on a platter. The whole superhero tantrum in Berlin stemmed from world renowned heroes being told they need to be put on a metaphorical leash. She can hand it to Stark that he seemed to be putting his best efforts to get it all shut down but still causes an effect of a much larger rate.

How long till she has a S.W.A.T team riding her ass wanting her to sign her rights and life away to be a puppet for the government. They don’t give a shit that she’s only in her last year of high school they will bring her in because she’s a threat.

The bell rings spurring her to follow MJ to their next class, but she still has more important things weighing on her mind. Peyton now has 4 bright eyed and bushy tailed trainee’s that will no doubt either expose their identity or get themselves killed within a week. Even she wasn’t that bad. (she was bad)  
The school day passes quick enough with lots of interesting conspiracy’s by MJ who she’s meeting to go out to the movies (MJ found out about how Peyton is living and now refuses to let her pay whenever they go out despite any protests) with at 5:20 and leaving for patrol hopefully before 8 and that doesn’t count the fact that she’s doing a patrol straight after school till 4:40.

Peyton knows she has to talk to the merry band of Fury minions and she knows she’s going to have to be harsh to get it in their heads because even though she doesn’t know them very well she’d be sad to see anything happen to any of them.

She doesn’t know why they’ve decided to train to do what they do but they all have skeletons in the closet. Peyton won’t dig up the past because she knows how painful old wounds can be when reopened, it’s not her place.

Fury obviously has some kind of idea in his head that she’s going to be a good influence to introduce the newbies to the real world ' _better me than Deadpool, though Wade does have some pretty helpful tips'_. Peyton knows this isn’t going to be easy, they’re going to protest, be stubborn, be defiant, be dangerously reckless. She knows because she did the exact same thing, only, she had the devil of hell’s kitchen scolding her.  
After an hour of patrolling with minimal crimes Peyton decides to formally meet and talk to these guys on the Helicarrier. Swinging up there she gets in easy enough having frequented the place enough to become a S.H.I.E.L.D regular.

Entering the main debriefing area in the front of the Helicarrier she watches amused from the shadows as the newbies bitch to Fury who looks like he’s contemplating hitting the self-destruct button.

“Well Fury, sure you’re not regretting this whole idea yet” he just sighs as the 4 newbies fall silent “By the way maybe teach your trainees to be better at not drawing attention to themselves. I knew who they all were within 5 minutes of them being in the building” she smirks and the 2 of the 4 looks sheepish but the other two look pissed “That is why you’re here” he snaps at Peyton glaring in all his one-eyed glory.

“What’s she meant to show us?” the tiger girl grumbled; she could sense the superiority complex on her. “The spider has done a lot for the world in the last 2 years, I’d like it if you could refraining from commenting on things you don’t understand” Fury scolds her and she turns away obviously embarrassed. Peyton rolls her eyes under the mask before sighing.  
“Just explain to everyone why I’m here Fury because I’m doing this out of choice. I don’t work for S.H.I.E.L.D and I certainly don’t report to S.H.I.E.L.D, I’ve got other things I’m working on” Peyton drawls as Fury just gives her an unimpressed look

“Spider-Girl will be training the team and leading the team for the first few months until she deems you competent enough to go out on your own” the team jump up all protesting at once but Fury sends them a withering glare which makes them back down “Spider-Girl also has personal problems that S.H.I.E.L.D is helping her with”

“Look you guys obviously don’t like me but maybe stop acting like 2 year old’s, hate to break it to you but those big heroes that everyone admirers don’t give a shit about training newbies. You guys have already been given much more guidance than I ever was, just be grateful that Fury could even find someone do to this” that makes them get off their high horse a little though they still seem a bit put out.

Fury decides to step back in “Spider will get a notification just like the rest of you with training days and times. She won’t always come but when she does you need to listen. Spider gets to keep her identity secret for as long as she wants, she has no obligation to tell you. You are not allowed to try and unmask her at any time either. I would say the same for you lot, but it seems you did a fine job of outing yourself already. Spider knows the drill; she knows enough supers to know how to keep secret identities” The blondie steps forward an easy going smile on his face and takes off his mask and extends his hand out to Peyton.

“Danny Rand. It’s a pleasure to meet someone as skilled as yourself, I believe we can benefit greatly from the combination of strengths” he muses with a beaming smile on his face, seemingly the only person happy with the arrangement. She rolls her mask up past her nose to grin crookedly back at him which seems to amplify his happiness before rolling it back down.

Cat girl walks over with an over-exaggerated sigh, thrusting her hand out aggressively “Ava Ayala, White Tiger” she bites out with a glare to which Peyton just raises and eyebrow. The one with the bucket looking thing under his arm walks forward “Sam Alexander. I go by Nova. Don’t think you’ll be that bad web-head” he smirks almost cockily as if he thinks he superior, she already knows this is going to test her patience.

Mr bodybuilder steps forward with a kind smile on his face “Luke Cage, hope you can keep up” he smirks challengingly and holds his hand out for a fist bump, and she decides to humor him. _'Okay they haven't outwardly told you to go die in a whole yet so 1 point for spidey. This can't be that bad can it?'_

* * *

  
Suffice to say the movie was shit but Peyton’s not complaining since the almost constant pain of hunger is now dulled. Deciding to take her time getting back to her building Peyton takes the time to just appreciate having 5 minutes of peace even though it never lasts long.

Screams echo down the street as The Wizard starts to wreak havoc. Ducking into a nearby alleyway she changes into the Spider-Girl suit before swinging her way towards him. Double leg kicking him onto the roof she spins round her foot colliding with his face as he tries to get up and she swiftly webs him to the ground only to be tackled to the floor.

Peyton wrestle with Thundra taking a few nauseating hits to the face before a familiar beam hits Thundra away. The rest of the team swarm as claw makes his presence know knocking down White Tiger who tried to attack him. She catches a punch from Thundra just as an already damaged billboard gets hit with the backlash of a blast and goes tumbling down.

Punching the War goddess away she launches off the building shooting webs which catch the falling billboard that was merely inches away from hitting the civilians on the street. ‘The whole point of this is to protect them. Looks like I’ve got my work cut out for me’ White Tigers scream draws her attention away watching the girl plummet towards the ground.

She barely makes it but manages to web her way around and catch the other girl. Peyton’s face burns as sharp metal tears across the left side of her face and eye, the tiger. The girl growls and squirms in her hold as she tries to swing back over to the fight with one eye working.

“I can save myself” Ava growls continuing to fling her claws around. Peyton can feel the blood dripping down her face through the stinging open wounds. “Stop being a bitch and get back to fighting” Peyton snaps done with the bitch’s attitude.

She dumps her on the building to find the rest of the team struggling. Peyton makes short work as the stamina of the three wears down, her face throbs in pain but she ignores it in favor of webbing them tightly to the ground then sending an alert to Fury.

Ironfist runs to her worry painting his features. Letting him help her up from where she collapsed on the ground, she leans most her weight against him. The others gasp once they get a glimpse of her face but the Tiger stays stoic.

“Rule number 1 – We train to fight the bad guy, that’s our job, those people down there don’t. We do what we do so they don’t have to. Protecting the people always come first even if the bad guy gets, ugh, away s-sometimes” Peyton snaps just as the Helicarrier lands and a couple agents escort her to the med bay.

-Time Skip –

Waking up from anesthesia is never fun but even worse when the pain hits. Peyton’s mildly surprised they found something strong enough to knock her out. Opening her eyes she can only see out of one but she can feel the bandage covering the other one.

“Good to see you up Spider, with your healing it’ll probably take a week till your eye is healed and it shouldn’t leave any lasting affects” Fury explains with a rare smile on his face, he’ll always have a spot for the Spider in his heart. Peyton smiles up at him lazily as he continues “Danny has been waiting outside and wants to see you, I’ll tell him to go if you don’t want to share your identity just yet” Peyton “Yeah he’s alright, he can come in but none of the others especially Miss tiger bitch” Fury sighs and nods.

A few moments Peyton watches as Danny hesitantly enters the room his head tilted in almost a puppy like fashion as he sits next to her bed obviously trying to mental deduce all her injuries. “How are you?” he questions shyly, and Peyton can’t hold back a smile, at least one of them likes her she can tell the other two boys are still waiting to make a final assessment on her.

“I’m doing okay, it’s not the worst I’ve had” Peyton grins crookedly and he smiles back, she can tell something is still playing on his mind but he speaks up before she can question him “I want to apologize for the way the rest of the team have treated you. Ava’s been benched by Fury indefinitely and none of us can understand why she’s acting the way she is” Danny rambles nervously wringing his hands together.

“She’ll work it out, we all have problems we don’t deal with in the best way and I’m not going to hold this against her. That said I don’t trust many people and she going to have to work hard to prove herself but I don’t doubt that we could be friends at some point” Peyton explains, while Ava did act like a bitch she can’t hold it against her, she doesn’t know her past or much about her so she’s in no place to judge.

Danny continues to question her about her abilities and vice versa. Peyton catches Fury’s eye while Danny excitedly rambles about his home, obviously nobody lets him talk about it. They nod to each other and maybe Fury did have a point when he asked her to do more. She smiles as Danny continues to explain his journey to becoming iron-fist, maybe this won’t be as bad as she first thought.

_‘Maybe, I won’t have to be alone’_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally, got chapter 2 done. I'm just gonna go over why i'm writing the characters the way i am. Luke is always pretty chill and level headed so i haven't changed much about him while writing. Sam is going to be a cocky show off who does argue with Peyton as this progresses also with the way the show did it, it took time for them to build up to becoming friends and i'm going to follow the same sort of idea here. Danny was always a bit more reserved and timid when it came to voicing opinions in the show and i'm going to continue that theme, i also think he'd be the first to be friends with Peyton and would jump on the chance to talk about his home without being brushed off as he no doubt was by everyone else because his story isn't the easiest to believe but just think him as a character would naturally gravitate towards Peyton.
> 
> Ava. Now i don't hate Ava but personally her character irritated me in the show because she did act quite bitchy and like she was superior to the other though her powers pale in comparison to some of the others. I feel like she could possibly build up to be a friend off Peyton's but she was bitchy in the show as well despite spider-man being put in charge. I don't think she'd want to have to listen to someone so undisciplined and honestly believes that she's good enough to not need to be trained. I feel her pride would've also been wounded since she most likely thinks if she has to train she should get the best of the best and she got Spider-Girl. She could also feel threatened being the only girl in the team. 
> 
> I just wanted to explain why i wrote some of the characters the way i did. I also tried to adjust Peyton's personality to fit her circumstances and how much long she's been a vigilante. I also find it hard to believe that Spider-Man didn't already know most of the avengers so i'm going to write that she already knows most of them and she won't be as immature because one she's lost a lot more and two girls tend to be more mature than guys there age so that follows.
> 
> Updates aren't scheduled so I can't promise when i'll post the next chapter but other than that thanks for reading!


	3. Chapter 3 - Playing The Part

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team get to see Peyton in action and she gets to talk to Sam a bit more. Danny and her develop their friendship as Peyton struggles to reconcile the past. A few words of wisdom from an old friend and mentor, maybe this is where she's meant to be, but we all know the trouble the parker name brings. She feels like she's only a puppet on a string, an asset, she tries to be what everyone needs her to be but she's still human, and sometimes, that can be forgotten.

Turns out the wheel of excuses isn’t great when you have 3 claw marks running down the side of your face. Peyton avoided school as much as possible while the cuts healed though apparently, she couldn’t avoid having a few scars _‘Spidey healing is good but not that good’_. Being Spider-Girl also has its challenges as it’s pretty painful for her to wear the mask on top of the wound, but she pushes it aside.

Walking through the familiar halls of the Helicarrier Peyton heads towards the training room hoping to get some practice time in alone. Letting out a breath she stretches before putting on a blindfold and setting the training simulation to the highest level.

Focusing her breathing as the count down till the simulation starts begins, she lets everything fall away into nothing as she focuses her senses complete. Spidey sense drums steadily in the back of her head and Peyton instinctively flips over a laser as a robot approaches. Flipping again her foot connects with the jaw of the L.M.D. She turns seamlessly and her fist connects with another L.M.D behind her.

Peyton hisses as a burning sensation shoots up her leg and the unmistakable smell of burning flesh invades her senses but she can’t stop. Her pace increases as she expertly weaves through the lasers while trading blows with the L.M.D’s. A bead of sweat rolls down her face as she pants slightly but it does little in terms of slowing her down.

After flipping around for a bit longer Peyton finally has enough and just outright rips the head off the final L.M.D, breathing heavily as the simulation shuts off. The sound of clapping pulls her out of her fighting mentality as she falls back into the present. Spinning round silently grateful that she left her mask on she’s met with Fury and the 4 newbie’s watching her.

“This is why she doesn’t need to always be present for training” Fury explains stoically. Peyton smiles under her mask walking over to stand next to Fury as the newbies begin training. She takes the time to observe there fighting styles fully as they spar trying to work out what the best way to train them will be.

“Hey web-head, wanna spar? Or are you to chicken?” smirking she goes to stand across from Nova as the others stop to watch “You sure bucket-head? It’s not too late for you to back out” “Not a chance”. Nova immediately goes on the offence while Peyton sticks to defense waiting for an opening. She methodically twists and flips around Nova’s energy beams just taking the chance to get a feel for Nova’s fighting style. Peyton pauses as Nova continues to miss “Come on bucket-head, you can do better than that”, that seems to piss the bullfight off as his attacks come faster and stronger.

Deciding the fight had gone on long enough she flips tackling him out of the air before pining him. “Not bad light-bulb” she laughs as he growls in anger. Training continues for another hour with Peyton spectating and occasionally joining in with sparring a couple times but she tried not to overdo it too much because as good as her healing factor is it will still take the next few days for her face to complete heal on leaving light pink scars behind.

Cutting back on patrol has been taking it’s toll on Peyton, she knows it’s necessary if she wants to be back mission ready but sometimes she just needs the excuse to beat up a mugger. Peyton sighs munching on the churro a nice couple gave her for preventing them from being robbed. Sometimes it’s nice to go back to the simple stuff, take a break from her upbeat life.

“I don’t see you round here much these days” a voice snaps her out of it, and she turns to see her old friend and mentor the devil of hell's kitchen. “I guess it has been awhile. How’s Foggy and Karen?” he takes a seat next to her swinging his legs back and forth a major contrast to his usual stoic, brooding exterior.

“Concerned. Jameson’s gotten harsher. You should come by the office more, we’d all like to see you more.” Peyton smiles, Matt’s office always had a sense of belonging, like she wasn’t an outsider like she always is even in the superhero aspect of her life. Patrolling by herself and having to deal with such harsh ridicule all the time definitely takes its toll, it’s like nobody notices all the people she’s saved.

“Yeah that’d be nice.”...………… “Sometimes it’s just hard to find a point in doing all this when nobody seems to give a shit.” Peyton sighs rubbing a hand down her face which only served to irritate the cuts on her face, she huffs as Matt chuckles under his breath. Peyton knew Matt before Spider-Girl was even a possibility, he’s pretty much the only parental figure she has left and would probably kill her if he knew she slept in an abandoned warehouse but she plans to leave that lecture for another day.

“Just remember what you fight for. Heroism is to die so others can live, we sacrifice everything so they don’t have to.” Peyton nods just letting Matt’s words sink in, this isn’t about them, its never about them, it’s about everyone else having a better life than theirs. She's heard it a million times before, but sometimes it helps to be reminded.

Their hands are dripping with red but better them than anyone else. They fight, the bleed, they cry and they get back up and do it again, they don’t stop because if they can get one more person out, stop one more person from jumping then, they did there job.

Peyton remembers when she was exactly like Fury’s team, believing she could still go to college and have a life but it doesn’t work like that. They do what they do so nobody else has to but life likes to push the boundaries and see just how much it can take before they break. Before they wave the white flag in the air and walk away. Peyton tried that, at 12 when she first got her powers, tried to walk away and say it wasn’t her problem but that isn’t her call to make.

“I knew you still were a bit of a softy behind all the growling and brooding” Peyton coos at Matt who grumbles and honest to god pouts, he pouts. (He will forever argue that it never happened but Peyton isn’t stupid enough to not get proof). “Yeah, yeah. I’ve got to head back but don’t be a stranger” Peyton laughs as he jumps from roof to roof back into the depths of hell’s kitchen.

* * *

_A blast knocks her to the ground and her ears ringing. Peyton spits out a bit of blood and groans as she feels her ribs grind against each other. With blurry vision she tries to push the cement pillar off her legs as the sounds of the battle continue on._

_Her comm is going crazy as question get shouted but she can’t get herself to respond. Finally managing to get out from under the pillar she collapse against the rubble blood covering her. Peyton wheeze’s as she desperately gasp for air through her damaged lungs. Picking up her comm she double taps a button on the side which lets Fury know she needs medical._

_She see’s someone rush forward but at this point she’d lost too much blood and her vision fades…_

* * *

Peyton finds herself in one of S.H.I.E.L.D’s many common rooms inside the Helicarrier reading one of the books she found left sitting around. While lounging around in her suit wasn’t exactly comfortable it’s not like she’s in a place to complain about that type of thing, just getting to sit on a lounge was enough.

Peyton can the soft patter of footsteps as someone approaches and is immediately on alert though logically, she knows its highly unlikely its anyone bad. Double checking her mask is secure she tenses up as the door opens only to relax at the sight of a familiar face.

Danny stands somewhat nervously in the doorway a slight frown on his face at Peyton being so guarded but he doesn’t linger on it for to long and lets a soft smile flitter gently onto his face noting how she slouches back into a relaxed position. “I thought maybe we could hang out, I would like to get to know you outside of a working aspect” he’s says it a bit awkwardly like he’s not quite he’s saying the right thing and she can’t help but smile at the similarities between him and her.

“Sure. Anything in particular you wanted to do?” a surprised expression briefly flashes across his face before it’s replaced with his normal happy one. _‘I wonder how many times people have said no to him? Maybe the team isn’t as friendly with one another as I thought’_ “Um, I’ve never had what I believe is called ‘street food’ before?” he admits somewhat sheepishly but she nods excitedly. “I’ll head back to my apartment and change then we can meet up in central park on the side closest to the Avengers Tower” “I shall meet you there”

Normally Peyton would be worried about having no money but she smirks while twirling one of Fury’s back up credit cards in her hand. She left a note to let him know it was her so he’s less likely to go batshit when he notices it’s gone (I mean seriously, he deserves a bit of paranoia if he owns backup credit cards. Who owns backup credit cards, apparently Nick Fury). At least she left the glitter out of it this time, he was cleaning his office for weeks after that. Let’s not even talk about when Deadpool comes by and the two of them get together, Fury still doesn’t know how he came out of that with his sanity still intact.

Peyton just assumed that the team were friends, it seemed like a sound observation but if the past is any indication nothing is ever that black and white. She doesn’t know them enough to know if that’s just how Danny normally acts but she figures snooping isn’t going to win her any brown points so she leaves it at that, for now.

Finally getting to Central Park she manages to locate Danny fairly quickly, meditating it seemed. Not wanting to disturb him she walks slowly towards him taking the time to pat several dogs on the way over. Once she finally makes her way over he seems to sense her presence and looks up at her with a smile “I hope you don’t mind I figured I could use the few minutes I was waiting to meditate, apologies if I offend you” Peyton just waves him off.

“Ok let’s get started on gorging ourselves with street food” the next 2 hours flies by with Peyton making sure to stop at at-least 20 different food carts and talking about just about anything with Danny who seemed to relax more and more as time when on and its only then when she notices he was tense in the first place.

“Ok, favourite memory” Danny asks Peyton in a gentle tone as they play 20 questions. Her eyes glisten with nostalgia and a sad smile plays on her lips “When I was around 7 my Uncle Ben took me to the Stark Expo, I’d wanted to go ever since I knew what it was. My Aunt and Uncle scraped together every last penny they could so I could go, I can’t remember ever being so excited. Then the Hammer Drones attacked and one saw me and recognized the Ironman mask I was wearing and went to attack me, I lifted my fake Ironman gauntlet and then the real Ironman showed up and saved me.” Peyton smiles fondly at the memory and with a glance in Danny’s direction shows him smiling aswell.

“The actions of those we admire influence what we grow to be and what we aspire to be” Danny states quietly in a soft voice and Peyton nods with what he’s saying truth lacing the statement. “For what it’s worth, I’m happy you’re on the team. Just give the other’s time and I’m sure we’ll all be friends, you’re a good person” She doesn’t think he’ll ever know just how much his words meant to her, not many people genuinely like her anymore, as self-depreciating as it is, it’s the truth.

“Thanks Danny” She smiles at him because, maybe, just maybe, she has a chance at a friendship without the guilt of secrets weighing down on her. All this time she’s been like a puppet on a string doing, doing what she was told with a mechanical ease. Sometimes she thinks its forgotten that she’s human, not a soldier, a machine, a puppet, deep down under all scars and bruises she’s human, sometimes people just forget.

_'Just playing the part, nothing more nothing less'_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Thanks for reading, i really hope your enjoying the story. Danny and Peyton's friendship is progressing and with a bit of struggle i think i'm starting to get better at writing Danny but i still apologize if he's a bit OOC. I'm excited to finally start writing conversations between Sam and Peyton as well! That's it for now, i don't want to ramble for too long so i'll see you next update.


	4. Chapter 4 - Pieces To The Puzzle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team learn a bit more about Peyton and her past, just not in the way they want to. A new character makes his debut as well.
> 
> \- Not Edited -

Peyton huffs in annoyance as she scrubs the training room floor, safe to say Fury was not impressed with her taking his credit card so now she’s on cleaning duty for 2 weeks. Her mask is irritating and sweaty against her face but she’s still gradually building up her trust in the team and Danny’s the only one who has seen her without her mask so far, not that that was on purpose.

Peyton’s head snaps up as she hears laughter in the hallway subconsciously securing her mask, she pretends to be ignorant to the door opening and just continues with her cleaning before someone clears their throat. She turns, her head tilting as the eyes on her mask widen almost like a confused puppy. “Hey web-head, what’d you do to get cleaning duty” Sam question ignoring the look from the rest of the team.

“I ‘borrowed’ some money from Fury without his knowledge, he was pissed but it’s not the first time I’ve pulled shit on him” Peyton smirks hidden beneath her mask, the looks on the teams face (excluding Danny) are almost comical. Danny has a small smile on his face and he jumps to speak before Sam can “We came to ask if you wanted some help, surely it will be more fun if we all partake in this activity” Peyton just nods, shock rolling over her in waves, nobody ever really offered to help her before at least not out of their own desire to be there with her.

Danny kneels next to her grabbing another brush and begins to clean with her “How bad was Fury’s rant?” “I’ve been on the receiving end a million times before, so the intimidation factor has gone down. Has Fury ever had to yell at you before?” the conversation spurs the other 3 into motion, scrambling to grab cleaning brushes nearly falling over each other, Danny and Peyton just smile at each other (he knows she’s smiling even if he can’t see it) continuing to talk quietly to one another while the other 3 bicker over who gets what brush.

“Fury got angry the time I let loose a bunch of pigeons in the helicarrier”

Sam squawks indignantly as he overhears the conversation “That was you!?” he screeches, pointing at Danny accusingly

“Fury nearly skinned me alive for that and it was!?” Danny ignores Sam’s enraged screaming

“Sam’s doing a great impression of how Fury was that day” Danny comments and Sam looks ready to start on his path to becoming a supervillain

Peyton laughs to herself “All Light-bulb needs now is an eye patch and they’d look identical” her remark causes Luke to snort before bursting out laughing when everyone looks at him. Luke’s laughter is infectious and soon everybody is laughing, even Sam. Peyton leans against Danny as she barks out a laugh, cleaning long forgotten. _‘Well’_ she thinks to herself _‘maybe we will be friends after all’._

Fury watches the teens through a security camera, a rare, soft smile on his face as he watches from his secluded office. Peyton was a born leader, he doesn’t need both eyes to see that but it was more than that. He had hoped by making her the leader she might realize that she’s not alone, he knew it wouldn’t be easy but he’d hoped to give her friends that understand what’s she’s going through and it looks maybe, she’ll finally find her place.

_‘This kid, this kid’s going to be bigger than any of us, even if she doesn’t know it yet’_

* * *

Walking into school Peyton mentally prepares herself for a shit day _‘Another day in this hell hole, how fun’._ Patrol had been rough the night before and irregular eating (mostly at school or S.H.E.I.L.D when Fury pretends to not notice. Sometimes civilians will buy her free food for her assistance but over all it’s still not much to live on) her healing factor has been struggling to keep up with her lifestyle having to prioritise in turn making the healing take a lot longer than It would normally, before shit hit the fan.

“Parker, you know what time it is” the horrid voice of Flash knocks her out of her internal brooding and she sighs in annoyance really wishing she could deck him, only once, to just knock that smug smile off his face but of course she has to be a _‘good person’_ , times like this make her reconsider the super villain path. Pain flares in her side as her already cracked ribs hit into a locker, it distracts her enough that Flash manages to get two hits to her face before she manages to scramble away down the hall way.

Danny looks up face scrunching in worry at her face before realizing what happened, she waves him off thankful that the rest of the group are invested in listening to Sam’s overexaggerated story.

Peyton limps her way to Mj’s locker where Mj and Harry are already talking. Both of their eyes darken as they catch sight of Peyton, battered and bruised and clearly horrific looking “Thompson’s a dick” Mj grumbles and Harry clenches his fist, Peyton doesn’t have the heart to tell them that it was a gang she was taking out last night that caused the most damage (not like she could if she wanted to).

“Really wish you’d let me knock the bastard out” Harry growl and she just raises and unimpressed eyebrow at him “Har we all know you’re all bark and no bite” she pats his shoulder as he just grumbles an embarrassed blush coating his cheeks as he storms towards their first class, Mj and Peyton laugh to themselves before following after the other teen. Someone pulls her off to the side and into a janitor’s closet, Danny. “Who was that earlier” she knew he wouldn’t let this go but she was hoping to avoid this conversation for as long as possible “That dick was Flash Thompson my personal bully his primary school” anger clouds the normally docile teens face and Peyton sighs, she really wishes she could let him help “please don’t get involved, I really would love to see you pummel him with Ironfist but if you start defending and hanging out with me the team, even Sam, it won’t take much for them to put two and two together. Once they know I promise I’ll let you punch Flash” Danny sighs arguing pointless at this point.

“Fine, I’m always here should you need help in seeing the light in your life” Danny smiles before heading off down the corridor and into the sea and she turns in the opposite direction racing to her first class.

\--

The rest of the day passed without much incident though it became hard to ignore Danny’s worried gaze constantly checking for new injuries whenever they crossed paths. Mj ranted to her about women’s rights their entire lunch break, Harry went back to being distant again but Peyton was so tired she hardly had the energy to think twice about it.

Though she’d managed so far the past 2 years living on the streets it’s starting to take it’s toll, especially not being able to eat regularly, even though she has been kidnapped before and had food withheld for a week at a time it doesn’t help that she’s been overexerting herself on the daily. At this point it’s either bring it up to Matt or die from starvation. Peyton pulls her cracked phone out of her pocket and messages someone she completely forgot about.

** Web-Head:  ** **Do you have a spare bedroom?**

** Dumbass:  ** **Why? Did you finally come to your senses and decided to accept my roommate offer?**

** Web-Head:  ** **It’s either that or death**

** Dumbass:  ** **Yay!!!!! Sleepover time! We can binge golden girls, eat a fuck ton of Mexican and bitch about life!**

** Web-Head:  ** **See you later Wade**

Deadpool wouldn’t be her first choice but he’s come to be a kind of older brother figure to her despite his mile-long list of flaws. It had been over a year ago when Wade offered her a place to stay but she had to big of a pride to accept so much help, it’s the same reason she never accepted money from Harry. It just seemed wrong to take so much from someone and be unable to repay them, she doesn’t like owing a debt to someone, it hasn’t ever ended well.

Peyton pockets her phone and heads back to her warehouse, she still wants to keep stuff their as she hopes to only stay with Wade for a little while, especially considering the fact that he may not be in the country for that long, she just needs a bit of time to get back on her feet. Worst comes to worst she asks Fury for a place on the helicarrier, she has got a room on there but Fury has never pushed anything, only let her know that it’s there if she needs it.

After spending about 10 minutes to grab a tiny amount of her belongings she heads over to Wade’s apartment, a small sigh escaping her as the building comes to view, contrary to popular belief he actually has a really nice apartment his jobs paying pretty well (that doesn’t mean she agrees with what he does). After a brief hello to the reception lady she walks up the stairs to Wade’s apartment (elevator’s are a sore spot). Peyton only knocks once before a mop of golden bounds through the door pulling her in for a tight hug, she lets herself relax into the hug, it’s been forever since she’s seen him.

“Welcome to mi casa Webs, hope you enjoy your stay” he jokes as he lets her go and ushers her into the apartment which always has a homey feeling to it. “Thanks for doing this Wade, life’s been pretty rough the past couple months” she smiles at Wade and he returns it though there’s something sad about it but he shakes it off quickly “Let’s get the party started, I was thinking White Chicks?”.

Watching White Chicks is the most fun she’s had in a while, she finds herself leaning against Wade as her eyes flutter. The idea of comfort is almost a foreign concept to her at this point, usually she only sleeps for a few hours at most having to be alert in case anyone found her safehouse and if it’s not that it’s nightmares. Letting her weight rest against Wade she lets her eyes flutter shut, this first time she’s felt safe and content going to sleep in a long time.

* * *

_Peyton groans prying her eyes open blearily, hardly even registering what’s happening. Suddenly a burning pain jolts her wake out of her sleepy daze. A lady with a tight bun and an angry scowl stares her down with a smirk holding a knife coated in red in her fist, two men behind her._

_Fear seizes her heart as she catches a glimpse of a bruised and unconscious Johnny. ‘No, no, no, no’ dried blood covers the side of his face dirt & blood caking his body. Before she has time to even think her body convulses as electricity runs through her veins ripping a blood-curdling scream from her throat. It stops for a second before it starts again, 10 times worse than before, the only sound she can make it out the laughing of the lady electrocuting her. When it stops she braces herself, holding back a scream as the pain starts again._

_Tears roll down her cheeks her body still convulsing slightly. Peyton watches as the woman tosses taser aside a cruel smile lighting up her face as she picks up a whip. The woman grabs her shackles and tosses her forward on her knees, Johnny’s fear filled eye’s meet hers just a second before the whip cracks down against her back. Johnny scream drowns out her own and he tugs viscously against his binds, blood dripping from his wrists where the chains dug into the skin. A lifetime seems to pass, her mouth is overwhelmed with the metallic taste of blood, the old, creaky door is opened and a man steps through with a sinister smile._

_His fist connects with the side of her face but that’s only the start. Roughly an hour passes before his little ‘game’ looses it’s appeal with her lack of reaction, even Johnny is sat quietly bruises littering his face from when he got a bit too mouthy when the guy was beating on Peyton. The guy leaves, slamming the door behind him finally leaving the two of them by themselves in the cold, grimy cell but Peyton couldn’t care less about the state of the cell just happy that the pain finally stopped. Shuffling over she rest her head on Johnny’s shoulder letting her eyes flutter shut as his arms encircle her protectively._

* * *

The shrill ringing of her phone jolts Peyton awake, blearily she pulls herself off the lounge only to trip and fall. Shaking herself awake she scrambles around knocking over several things before finally finding the small device. She turns to look at Wade who remains dead to the world despite her just ripping his apartment apart. Peyton answers not even checking the caller ID.

“We have a lead” her brain short-circuits at Fury’s words

“W-what” she mumbles rubbing sleep from her eyes

“A lead on the people that took you last year for 2 months” suddenly she’s very awake heart pounding in her chest. Pulling out her suit she throws her hair in a messy bun, a million emotions swirling around her mind.

“Where am I going?” her voice is cold, to the point.

“We are sending a jet for you now, we have the supposed whereabouts of a deal meant to be going down with known associates of them are meant to be in attendants, we need them for questioning” fear courses through her veins at the thought of those monsters, what they did.

“How long?”

“5 minutes, be ready, we’ve only got a small window”

“Copy that”

\--

The jet drops her on the outskirts of a forest 30 minutes from the city, supposedly there’s an old factory that the deal is meant to be going down in. She sighs deeply scaling a tree to get a better view. Nothing. No building, nothing. It was dead end. Anger envelopes her and she lets out a scream, driving her fist into the side of the tree leaving a dent. Tears roll down her cheeks as she walks to the pick up “I’m sorry Johnny” she manages to choke out, guilt eating at her from the inside tearing her down piece by piece. She remembers the day she told the Fantastic 4, she’d offered because she figured it might be better coming from her considering she would hang there constantly with Johnny.

Peyton had never wished she took Fury’s offer more. They hurled words of anger towards her, Sue broke down in tears screaming that it was her fault, that Johnny had been so excited to work an actual investigation with her and now it’s her fault he’s gone. She jumped out of the closest open windows, swinging her way to the Statue Of Liberty, their spot, and breaking down in tears.

A whistling sound pierces through her thoughts. The Spidey Sense blares in the base of her skull and she barely manages to dodge a bullet. Suddenly on high alert she watches as 40 men burst through the bushes guns trained on her, shit. She begins to fight bullets clipping her here and there, a few stray fists connecting with her body. She manages to web ten of them to the ground before taking down another 10. She screams as a bullet lodges in her side, she lags long enough for another bullet to tear through her left shoulder.

She rips the gun from one of the guys hands knocking him out with it. She shoots a few of their kneecaps before the bullets run out. Tossing it to the side she flips one man over shoulder, turning around to backfist another guy to the face. Flipping through the air she webs 3 guys together stringing them up in a tree letting them dangle in the air. Panting she wipes a little bit at her bloody nose before moving to alert Fury. 3 shots crack through the air. She stumbles as a 3 bullets tear through her body, one embedded in her thigh, one in her calf and one in her right bicep.

She stumbles toward the man on the ground who fired the shots, taking pleasure in the way his jaw shatters beneath her fist. Grabbing one of the guns (and making sure it has bullets in it) she stumbles her way towards pick up, using her blood coated gloves to pull her phone out, the world spinning as she tries to get Fury’s contact up. Before she can do anything darkness swallows her vision and she collapses to the ground, leaving the phone to ring uselessly.

* * *

Sam paces back and forth wringing his blood-soaked hands, eyebrows creased with worry, Danny’s not much better, tears roll down the monks’ cheeks as he watches the door almost like he’s trying to will it into opening. Her face plays on repeat in his head, her desperate, pain-filled voice calling out lowly to him. The blood soaking his Nova outfit as she shivers curling into him and the warmth of Nova energy as the heat seeps from her body. The face of the girl he saw get thrown to the floor, he ignored it, not wanting to go back to the weak, bullied little kid he once was. The girl who could back-chat Fury and choose when she works. _Peyton._

That’s what Danny screamed as soon as he saw the girl, all blood draining from his face, tears streaming down his face as he looked at the dying girl. Fury had remained ever stoic, calling for medic which arrived in second. Somehow during transfer the mask slipped from her face, brown locks tied in a messy bun, face littered with bruises and three long, faded pink scars. Ava helped the limited number of staff, he heard something about an injured Avenger but all he could think about was her.

This is one of the days Luke hates his powers. Hates that he couldn’t share it, hates that he’s not more useful, hates that he can’t do anything, hates that everyone else gets hurt but him, hates that he can’t share their pain. He hates that he doesn’t know how to comfort a distraught Danny who seems to have formed an unlikely bond with the spider. Hates that he doesn’t know how to convince Sam that it wasn’t his fault. Hates that he doesn’t have the answers, because at least an answers and answer, but now they sit terrified of the unknown.

All head shoot up as Fury walks through the door eye suspiciously bloodshot, but nobody dares to utter a word, watching the director waiting for an answer to the unspoken question. “She’ll be fine but her healing factor tends to keep her asleep while healing major injuries so she probably won’t be awake till tomorrow, we still have training so try and get as much sleep as you can but I know you’re worried for your friend” before he can even finish the four of them nearly trip over themselves racing into the med-bay

He sighs, a small, sad smile gracing his lips as he watches them go “I only hope the future is kind to them” he mutters before striding confidently towards his office, his mind still on the teen currently occupying his Med-Bay.

Ava and Luke are the first to leave with promise to come straight back in the morning. Sam has to physically drag Danny out of the med-bay when he starts to almost fall asleep, it takes 25 minutes of debating with stubborn monk until he finally agrees, giving Peyton’s hand a firm squeeze he takes his leave, though extremely reluctantly.

Sam holds her hand in his own, guilt churning uncomfortably inside him. How could he not blame himself; he froze as soon as he saw her taking way to long to get her back to S.H.I.E.L.D, it’s on him. Sam scans her face and finds himself admiring her, everything about her, he shuts that down quickly though. He’s never been the best with emotions, better and easier for everyone to keep them at arm’s length, anything else only brings pain.

He manages to stay awake longer than he thought, distracting himself with anything and everything. His eyes begin to droop and become heavy but he forces them open, determined to keep an eye on her though he realistically knows that he’s in one of the most secure places in the world. With one last look at Peyton he lets his eyes fall shut, letting the sound of her breathing lull him to sleep.

\--

A scream tears through the air jolting Sam awake. He stares wide eyed as Peyton thrashes against the nurses trying to calm her down, her hair is dishevelled, tears roll down her cheeks, eyes wide in terror. Danny stands next to Sam looking as horrified as Sam feels, the other too are their as well, along with Fury who stares knowingly and sadly but Sam barely pays attention mind still hazy from sleep and scrambled with everything happening.

“ _JOHNNY! JOHNNY!”_ Peyton screams desperately as sobs wrack her body. “I’m sorry” she whisper before falling back to sleep, cheeks stained red with tears. Fury whispers something to her nobody can hear before turning to his terrified trainee’s.

“I want all of you in your dorms. You can all return in the morning but for now you must get some sleep, I know it won’t be easy after what you just saw but none of you will be of any assistance to her when she wakes up in the morning and you’re tired. None of you are allowed to stay, that’s an order” they file out of the room silently.

The silence carries as they walk to their rooms everything that happened still fresh on their minds. After pulling on some comfortable sweats he turns the light off and tries to settle in bed. Her screams echo in his head like a broken record. After an hour of tossing and turning he finally starts to succumb to sleep. One last thought plays on his brain before he falls into a dreamless sleep _‘Who’s Johnny? Why am I jealous of him?’._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a lot to say today, that or i can't think of anything. I'm so happy to finally have this chapter done, please excuse any mistakes as it's not been edited thoroughly but my plan is that once i'm done with this book or around the last few chapters i'll go back and edited all the chapters. I'll try not to take so long writing the next update but no promises. Again just a big thank you to everyone that reads this and leaves kudos, it means a lot, i'm so happy that people enjoy my writing so a big thank you to you all. Any suggestions you guys have or stuff you'd want to see feel free to comment, i can't make any promise but suggestions and ideas are always really helpful to writers.


	5. Chapter 5 - Igniting The Burnt Strands Of Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peyton's life is a whirlwind, one problem after another but this time maybe she'll realize she has more people in her corner than she thinks.

Peyton’s eyelids flutter as she comes to, the last thing she can remember is collapsing and someone helping her, Nova maybe? She looks round the room to find it empty except for all the machines hooked up to her. Peyton makes quick work of disabling all the machines hooked to her, hissing in pain when removing the IV, they’re never fun. Putting both feet to the floor she spends a few minutes testing to see that her legs won’t give out under her body weight.

Peyton pulls on the blood-covered Spider suit before creeping down the helicarrier hallways. It doesn’t take much effort for her to sneak past the guards and take off, knowing she’s got at least 3 to 4 hours before they notice, sooner if someone had been doing regular checks. The wind rushes past her filling her with a sense of euphoria as she swings through the city. Web-slinging is Peyton’s favourite get away, leaping and twisting through the air with nothing, not even gravity, holding her back, there’s nothing like it, a feeling that can’t be put into words.

 _‘What the fuck am I supposed to do now?’_ she thinks to herself, if the last 24 hours are anything to go by everything going to spontaneously go up in flames soon, in some sort of twisted karma. Peyton was supposed to save him, she was supposed to protect him, but the jackass had to go and get himself capture and probably killed. She owes him everything, she owes him her life and yet, she slipped up, she fucked up again, couldn’t even follow one lead that could’ve brought her best friend back.

Swinging without any planned destination in mind, she relies on her Spidey sense to make sure she doesn’t become a street pancake. Peyton crouches in a familiar tree, tears burning behind her eyes as she looks at the graves, 4 lined neatly next to each other. _‘Ben Parker, beloved Uncle and Husband’,_ she sits in front of Uncle Ben, tears shining in her eyes. “I don’t know what to do Uncle Ben. I stuffed up our only lead on where Johnny could be, our only chance to know if I really did get him killed.” Her voice cracks and a traitorous tear escapes. “I really wish you were here Uncle Ben, I wish you could tell me what to do” Peyton cries until the sun starts to peak over the horizon, the sun casts a golden glow over the city.

Sighing she wipes the tears from her face before stuffing the Spidey suit into a bag she had left webbed up in an alleyway near the cemetery. Throwing it over her shoulder she lets the sounds of New York wash over her, early risers on coffee runs, morning traffic, bird’s chirping, it all just feels like home to her. Peyton gets swallowed in the crowd as she heads to Wade’s apartment. It doesn’t take long to get there; she scrambles around to get ready for school ignoring the tiny bit of guilt she feels for taking off and painfully limps her way to school

* * *

Sam stumbles out of his room still clad in pajamas's coupled with a bad case of bed head, the rest of the team is out of their rooms too, not looking much better than him. Fury stands there as silently terrifying as always, he didn’t get an alert for a mission so it can’t be that. “Spider-Girl left. It seems she took off at around 3 this morning and disabled all medical equipment that was connected to her.” Worry bubbles in Sam’s chest as a million different scenarios rushing through his mind _‘What if she was taken, what if she’s half-dead in a dumpster somewhere, what if she’s DEAD! What if-‘_ his mental spiel is interrupted as Fury starts talking again “I know you are all worried for your teammate, I am too. But I have reason to believe that if she can get of the helicarrier without alerting anyone than she is most likely fine. Now school, let me know if our missing spider makes an appearance, dismissed” with that he stalks off down the hallway, trench coat blowing dramatically behind him.

Walking to school Sam finds that for once he’s excited to get there, whether that has to do with a certain spider teen, well, that’s his business. Luke and Ava take this time to interrogate Danny who remains tight-lipped though visibly worried for the spider if his frown every time she’s mentioned is anything to go by. Jealousy starts to stir inside of him at the knowledge that ‘Peyton’ (It feels so weird to know her name) trusts Danny the most, though rationally he knows that besides Danny they didn’t really give her a warm welcome.

As soon as they enter the building Sam starts to subconsciously scan the crowd for her and out of his peripheral vision notices Danny doing the same. Sam stiffens when he finally sees her, she’s limping with badly concealed bruises littering her skin, her long hair used to cover her face though it doesn’t do much. Mj notices her immediately fussing over the other girl who presumably answered with some half-assed excuse, he watches as Peyton turns with wide, hopeful eyes to the Osborn douche only for him to snap something at her. Judging my Mj’s glare it was nothing nice and only serves to fuel Sam’s jealousy filled hate of the Osborn heir.

Peyton looks up, doe eye’s making contact with his own emerald green. Before Sam can so much as step towards her, she scurries into the crowd, disappearing Mj following suit. Sam turns to look at Danny who looks back up at him concerned, both Ava and Luke seem concerned as well. “It’s been a long 24 hours for everyone, I think you’ll find she’ll find her way back; you must realize her identity was also unwillingly revealed to you last night. We can consult Fury this afternoon” Danny suggests and the others nod, heading off to class as the bell rings.

Sam barely pays attention to anything during the rest of school, mind focused on the web-head. While he may not know Peyton, he knows Spider-Girl, he’s never seen her look so small and defeated. All he’s seen is her on the battlefield or training, always confident, sarcastic with a million horrible jokes at her disposal. Sam sits poking his food not really paying attention until his mind drifts to what Peyton had screamed when she woke up on the Heli-carrier.

“Last night she said something about a ‘Johnny’, does the name ring any bells?” Sam asks, they all just look at him unimpressed “what? It could be a clue to this whole thing” he defends, it seemed like an important enough detail to him. The rest of the day passes slowly but finally the final bell rings, the team are quick to head to the helicarrier. They just about trip over each other in their haste to talk to Fury, who just raises an eyebrow at the display looking slightly amused. “We saw her at school but she didn’t look good, Danny reckons she just needs some time to process everything and that she’ll come when she’s ready” Fury eyebrow furrows into a frown at Ava’s words, he knows from experience that if Peyton didn’t want to be seen she wouldn’t be, she must’ve been really out of it if she didn’t sense the team. “Dismissed, training in an hour” is all he says before turning back to his work, masking the concerned look on his face skillfully.

* * *

A week has passed, and Peyton had avoided them both in and out of the suit. Spider-Girl disappears any time they show up or she bolts as soon as the battle is over, they can barely even step towards her before she flees like a wounded animal. While she did feel bad for running from them all she hasn’t quite been ready to go back, it’s having her identity revealed to people in one of the worst possible ways that’s been messing with her. She didn’t have control, she never has control, the whole situation sent her into a major downward spiral.

 _‘What if next time it’s Mj? Or Harry? What if next time I don’t wake up?’._ It takes her a minute to realize where she swung to, staring at the familiar office building ducking down into a secluded alleyway to change out of her suit. Peyton stepped inside the familiar building a small smile gracing her lips. She pushes the door open and it takes all of 5 seconds for Karen to see her and pull her into a hug. “You’re not allowed to go disappearing off the face of the earth like that again, you hear me?” Karen berates her only to hug her again before going back over to her desk “Guess you’re here to see Matt?” Peyton nods, bouncing slightly on the balls of her feet. “He should be here soon, and if you want our photocopier is broken so maybe you could have a look at that instead of just sitting around doing nothing” She jumps on the chance to stay distracted, everything in their office is bordering on ancient. Peyton starts fiddling with machine taking less than 5 minutes to find the problem and another 2 to fix it; with nothing else to do she starts to upgrade the copier, so it works better.

It takes 10 minutes for Matt & Foggy to show up, having gone to a court case. Foggy nearly jumps a foot in the air when she drops a wrench having not noticed her presence yet. It takes him all of 5 seconds before he goes full mother hen (which isn’t surprising considering the last time she showed up unannounced she had 3 bullet wounds; _that was a fun talk_ ), after letting Foggy have his moment Peyton asks to speak with Matt. “I have no fucking idea what to do” she exclaims before dramatically flopping down onto a chair.

“What happened this time?” he questions looking at her with a bored expression while looking like he’s also mentally berating himself for ever choosing to run around with horns on his head. “The rest of the ultimate's found out my identity while I was bleeding out” Matt just looks at her, as if he’s the one with the identity crisis going on.

“And I know it’s stupid, they were always going to find out my identity whether I wanted them to or not. It’s just, I’ve never gotten a choice, my entire life I had no control over anything that happened. Now again, one of if not my most kept secret out to 3 more people, I didn’t even have control as I was too delirious with blood loss to even know what happened” Matt sighs, at no point in his life did he think he’d be giving advice to his (at this point) pseudo daughter. “It doesn’t get easier; you don’t get used to people finding out your identity & in most cases it won’t be your choice either. It’s not an easy burden to carry, what we do will forever weigh on us. At least the people that found out carry the same secret you do; I think they’ll understand more than you think they will. You better than anyone know that everyone’s got a story” Peyton sits mulling over his words as Matt starts to go over his braille paperwork.

She should probably tell him about her living situation, but he’s already done so much for and she doesn’t want to risk it. People walk away, Wade didn’t but Peyton didn’t want to give Matt a reason too. Peyton hangs around for another hour messing with machines around the firm before deciding that she must finally face her team. Her team that saw her at her worst, her weakest, something only few ever see because she’s learnt to hide it all, something you learn from being shunned one to many times. Sighing she pulls herself to her feet, fumbling with the web shooters on her wrist, swiftly pulling her suit on. Peyton pulls the window open before turning to face Matt, a small smile on his face that he can’t see “Thanks Matt” she whispers knowing he can hear before launching out of the window.

She does as series of intricate flips as she swings between skyscrapers, relishing the sound of the cheers from the streets below, a feeling of euphoria encompasses her at the knowledge that people really do see what she’s doing. Peyton makes it up to the helicarrier in record time, she knows the way like the back of her hand at this point.

Landing almost silently on the roof she heads inside, hoping to run into Fury first. Peyton makes it to the main area to find the team already there with Fury looking so exhausted. Smirking in amusement she stands there for a few more minutes as Fury continues to look more and more dead inside before making her presence known.

Immediately everyone’s attention is on her, their gaze’s burning her back, but she skillfully ignores them. “Nice of you to join us” Fury remarks, voiced laced with sarcasm. “I know I just, needed a bit of time to processes everything” Danny smiles at her, it lifts a weight off her shoulders _‘At least he isn’t mad, hopefully the others see it that way too’._ Ava clears her throat looking thoroughly done with the small talk and Peyton can only imagine everything the other girl wants to say, none of it particularly flattering.

“Are you kidding me!?” Ava growls “She gets to just leave and then show back up whenever she wants and doesn’t do half as much as we do! Why should she even lead this team”

“I think we deserve to know what the fuck is going on!?” Luke exclaims as Danny tries to but in.

“We all need to keep our heads; tempers won’t help anything”

“Why is she any different to us?! Why should she get to keep secrets?!”

“Everyone is intitled to privacy”

“Shut it with monk crap rand, don’t tell you don’t see how differently she’s treated to us”

“She doesn’t owe us anything, petty arguing isn’t going to instill her with confidence that we can be trusted”

“I’d be a better leader than she could ever be, I’d show up for one thing”

“We’re not here to help your fantasy of being the best Ava”

“Oh, now you find your words Sam, I thought you’d jump at the chance to argue”

“Like you’ve been helping anything Luke, you don’t even know her!”

“And you do, none of us know her, none of us trust her!”

“ENOUGH!” Fury’s voice rings through the air, anger clear as day on his face. Uncharacteristically Peyton stands silently next to him, looking hunched in, nothing like her usual confident aura. “What, did that achieve?” his words cut through the silent room, 5 pairs of eyes staring at him, not so much as even twitching in case of setting him off.

“You don’t know me” Peyton’s voice is barely above a whisper, but everyone hears it. She pulls her mask off, hair falling in waves behind her face still battered and bruised, decorated with little scattered cuts. It jars them, having a face to put to the famous name, like now it makes her human, knowing that’s there’s a human underneath it all. A person none of them even tried to get to know.

“Danny’s the only one of you who ever tried to even talk to and know me outside of the battlefield. Outside of the mask I’m nobody special, I’m a nobody, an abused orphan who most don’t give a second thought to. Maybe you don’t me, but I don’t know you guys either, why would I tell you my life story?” Peyton’s voice remained steady and quite throughout the entire spiel, tugging her mask back on she spins on her heel and strides out of the room.

* * *

Peyton sighs as she stops her 7th mugger in a row, she tries to keep her eye out for bigger crime considering the muggers could be a ploy, but she doesn’t have much to go on. _‘These guys must be having a barbeque, must have run out of money for the soft drinks._ Patrol had been quiet with despite the growing population of muggers nothing else had happened. It’s disappointing considering she was hoping to take out her frustration on some drug dealers.

She also found this adorable golden retriever who had snapped his leash, but it didn’t take long to find the owners, other than that she’d just been listening to all of Jameson’s kind words regarding her recent escapades. There’s always a part of her that cheers whenever a jumbo-tron is destroyed during a fight.

Her watch starts to buzz angrily and it’s so _tempting_ to just tell Fury to fuck off because _no_ she does not feel like getting her ass handed to her right now but Fury would just come and find her & drag her kicking and screaming to the helicarrier if her had to ( _speaking from experience)._ She clicks accept and Fury’s face appears on her watch screen “What is it that you need little old me for eyepatch?” she asks dramatically, placing a hand over her heart and batting her eyelashes under her mask.

“Parker, you need to get to the helicarrier now, there’s something you need to see” is all he says before he’s gone again. “Yeah cause that’s descriptive, last time it was a lunatic scientist with an octopus fetish, excuse me if I don’t particularly trust you” she grumbled to herself, swing towards the helicarrier through the night sky littered with stars.

Again, it takes less than 5 minutes for her to get there, sighing exasperatedly at the thought of having to deal with more questions from her ‘team’. Peyton strolls into the meeting room not saying anything to the other team members already there, she takes a seat next to Danny, taking of her mask and giving him a soft smile.

Fury walks into the room with a sullen expression on his face making a shiver run up Peyton’s spine, whatever they’ve been called here for, in wasn’t anything good.

“We received a video from an unknown source 2 hours ago, our agents have determined that no virus is connected to the video that could harm the S.H.I.E.L.D database but, this video will not be easy to watch but it’s a major breakthrough in an ongoing investigation we’ve had going on” Peyton feels her blood turn to ice, her entire body frozen, unable to move.

Fury’s gaze lingers on Peyton for a second before he clicks play, immediately a bloody and bruised Johnny Storm is shown on the screen, chained to the wall with what must be vibranium, mostly likely tampered with to stop him from burning through it. A sob echoes through the room and everyone turns to the source, Peyton holds a hand to her mouth tears streaming down her face as she holds in another sob at the sight of her (not by blood) brother.

That doesn’t last long as the video changes to show Johnny writhing and screaming as electricity flows through his body. Peyton gasps for air panic constricting her chest, the worst moments of her life play on repeat in her head as she gasps for air, the images of all her failures coming back to haunt her. Uncle Ben’s face as he utters his final words to her, Aunt May’s terrified look when she realizes there’s no way she’d make it, Johnny’s sad smile as he sacrifices himself for her, Captain Stacy’s final words as he bleeds out from saving her life.

Danny’s gentle voice breaks through her panicked haze “It’s okay Peyton, you’re okay, focus on breathing” she feels him grab her hand placing it gentle on his tone chest letting her feel the gentle rise and fall of his chest. “tell me 5 things you can hear” he asks gentle and she forces her sense to focus, there’s two scientists arguing two floors down, Coulson is yelling at new recruits, Maria Hill muttering curses under breath, the punching bags creaking in the training room, guns going off in the shooting range, she tries to focus on forming words “Um, scientists arguing in a lab 2 floors down, Coulson yelling at new recruits, M-m-maria hill cursing, the punching bags in one of the training rooms and g-guns in the shooting range” she blearily sees Danny nod encouragingly.

“Ok, now 4 things you can smell” the panic grasping her chest loosens it’s grip as she focus on letting her sense go fully “Sweat, food, chemicals, uhm you?” she finishes it kind of like a question her mind still scattered but Danny doesn’t falter, seemingly knowing exactly what to do.

“That’s good, 3 things you can feel” slowly the world seems to be coming into focus but the panic still has a firm hold on her chest “Um, the floor, your hands, my mask” her voice is less shaky but she’s still struggling to breathe normally

“You’re doing great, one more, 2 thing you can see” shakily the whole world comes back into view, Danny crouched in front of her, a soft smile on his face. “You, the window” her breathing steady’s out and Peyton furiously wipes the tears from her face. Danny pulls her into a hug and she vacantly wonders _‘Is this what it’s like to have friends?’._ “Thank you” she mutters to Danny who just smiles waving her off like he didn’t just help her through a panic attack, which nobody has before “I’m just glad you’re okay”.

He helps her to her feet, and she realizes that he took them out into the hallway, so nobody saw, she sends a shaky smile to him which she hopes gets across how thankful she is. “We best head back inside for we risk the wrath of director Fury” Peyton’s not worried about Fury, he doesn’t have anything he can really threaten her with except maybe what they just saw but Fury’s not a heartless bitch so she isn’t worried.

Everyone looks at them when they walk back in, but they don’t comment on what happened which she’s grateful for _‘Ugh emotions, I didn’t sign up for that shit’_ she thinks to herself. Fury clears his throat before continuing, dropping a note on the table “If you didn’t already realize who we just saw was the presumed dead Human Torch, part of the superhero team called the Fantastic 4. We just got proof that he’s still alive which means it’s now top priority to find him, so far all we have is the video which we’ve got agents trying to find a location from and a note” Peyton picks up the note, reading it aloud “The flame dims as the clock ticks, but this is only the beginning”

Peyton slams the paper down on the table knocking her chair to the floor as she stands turning to glance briefly at Fury “Let me know when you have a lead to follow” is all she says before storming out of the room shoving her mask roughly into place. The team look to Fury for answers who just sighs “They were close before everything happened, it’s not my place to say what happened but just know that there’s more to her than the front she puts forward, dismissed, I’ll contact you immediately when any new leads surface” is all Fury says before leaving as well, leaving behind a flabbergasted group of teens hardly able to make sense of everything that happened. The teens shuffle out of the room, walking back down towards there dorms and Sam breaks off from the pack, helmet tucked under his arm.

* * *

_The routine had continued for what seemed like months though realistically it probably hadn’t been more than a week. The lady with the tight bun swapped between her and Johnny though she seemed to enjoy Peyton screaming more. Her healing factor has been slowing with her lack of nutrition and constant reliance on it._

_Pain engulfs her entire body as a scream rips from her throat. Electricity flows through her veins as Johnny looks at her in horror his blonde hair stained with red, left eye swollen and littered with purple bruises. Blood trails down his cheek, his bloodshot eyes trained on her own fear shining brightly._

_Peyton’s body slumps against the wall the pain finally stopping. She fights to stay conscious but her vision blurs, her head spinning. The last thing she hears is johnny’s desperate pleas for her to stay awake put the pull of the darkness was too strong for her to fight and she lets her consciousness slip._

* * *

Peyton lands on the Statue of Liberty, letting her feet dangle over the edge while watching the ever-crowded city. Johnny used to meet her up here with a stupid joke and crappy take out, it reminds her of him. The city is illuminated with a golden glow, the sun setting behind the horizon the streets still as busy as ever. Peyton lets the sounds of the city flow over, eyes closed as she leans back against the statue.

She looks up as someone lands behind her, but the Spidey sense remains quiet, so she doesn’t move. “Hey…” the voice immediately puts her on edge, Peyton shifts to be able to make a quick get away if necessary. “I just wanted to see how you were, I assume you guys were close” Sam sits next to her but too close, looking at her eyes full of curiosity and kindness. “We used to meet up here every night, he’d usually bring really bad takeout even though I’d tell him not to because I never had the money to pay. He’d help me out with some of my really big fights since no other big heroes would ever step in to help me.” Sam just nods along to her words, letting her talk.

“It doesn’t help that the F4 don’t like me because I got away & Johnny didn’t, I guess in a way they blame me, like I don’t already blame myself. They haven’t exactly helped my already horrible reputation, other, bigger superheroes don’t even help me in fights anymore. I am friends with some vigilantes but other than that the public opinion of me is shit, most try to make me out as the problem but as long as their safe I couldn’t give two shits about their opinion of me”

Sam doesn’t really have much of an idea on what it’s like for people to have an opinion on what you do, Team Ultimate is secret enough that nobody really knows them. He internally winces at the way he would react if he had people bashing him the way they do Spider-Girl. “You’re alright webs” a smile pulls at Peyton’s lips, head tilted eyes alight with happiness, “So are you bucket-head, so are you”. They sit there till long after the sunsets, silently enjoying the unspoken understanding.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this took forever but updating should be more regular from now on (fingers crossed). While Wade didn't make an appearance in this chapter he will be back, Matt also has a solid reoccurring role in this story. Thanks so much to anyone reading, it means alot!


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